As we outlined on Friday, Hawks owner Tony Ressler conducted a series of media interviews this week to discuss the team’s recent front office and head coaching changes. We passed along a few highlights from his discussions with ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Lauren Williams of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, but Ressler also spoke on Friday to Jeff Schultz of The Athletic, who pushed him a little harder on the role that his son Nick Ressler has within the Hawks’ front office.
Reporting from The Athletic earlier this year suggested that Nick Ressler – Atlanta’s director of business and basketball operations – had gained “increasing influence” in the Hawks’ front office and that not everyone was comfortable with that. Pressed on the issue by Schultz, Tony Ressler pushed back on the notion that his son has an outsized voice in decision-making and that other executives aren’t happy with Nick’s role.
“Who? Do they still work here?” the Hawks’ owner responded when Schultz said The Athletic had spoken to people who were uncomfortable with his son’s level of influence. “Look, the idea that you’re using former employees for a narrative that is untrue. The simple answer is we have a front office today that works beautifully, where Nick is one of many voices and frankly an unbelievably positive and supportive voice. And if you ask anyone who works here they would tell you yes.
“… We have a fairly large basketball ops that values a whole bunch of voices and Nick’s one of them. … What he is is a great kid who works his ass off and is one of the many voices that feed into (assistant GM) Kyle (Korver) and (GM) Landry (Fields).
“Am I partial? Maybe. But if I didn’t think he was a positive influence to this franchise, he wouldn’t be here. … It’s very important to me that perception is similar to reality. When you say I give a disproportionate amount of influence to my son, that’s just a f—ing lie, because I would be running a lesser business than I’m capable of.”
Here’s more from around the Southeast:
- The Magic lost their second-leading scorer on Friday, as Franz Wagner left the game in Charlotte early due to a left ankle sprain. According to Khobi Price of The Orlando Sentinel, X-rays on the ankle were negative, which is good news, but Wagner still may have to miss some time as a result of the injury.
- Kevin Love has started all five games since he arrived in Miami, but the Heat have lost four of those games and the new starting five of Love, Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, and Gabe Vincent has a net rating of minus-9.4 so far. As Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald writes, that same group with former starter Caleb Martin in Love’s place has a plus-18.6 net rating this season. For his part, Martin is still getting used to his new bench role. “It’s a little different, man,” he said on Friday. “… It’s just adjusting to whatever is going on. It’s also more of a role of gassing yourself out, being that spark coming off the bench as opposed to maintaining.”
- The much-vaunted Heat culture is being tested by the team’s inconsistent performances as of late, with Butler suggesting after Friday’s loss to New York that Miami needs to play with more urgency. “We really get bored with the process and I can’t tell you why. We play hard and sometimes we get back in the game like we did tonight and sometimes we don’t,” Butler said, according to Chiang. “But either way it goes, if we just play basketball the right way the entire game, I don’t think we’re in this situation more often than not. But for some odd reason, we think it’s going to be easy so we just go out there and go through the motions.”
(Posted earlier, but actually was responding to Schultz’ story, not others’.)
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Reaction: Ressler’s doing the same bipolar dance he did thru the Budcox episode.
Hard to trust the man in anything he says when he admits to some deceptions, and in other cases, the evidence that he was being deceptive speaks for itself even if he’s not willing to admit he was being deceptive.
Also, painfully lacking self-awareness, as-if a man in his position and with his authority could ever presume he has a great handle on what other people *really* think–in this case about the gravity of his son’s voice.
What Ressler does, whether he realizes it or not, is that he puts relatively inexperienced, unheralded people into the prime leadership position of his basketball franchise (first Bud, then Travis, and now Landry).
And/but that’s a set-up for inviting triangulation… for inviting all the people who are not the GM to knock on the owner’s door, and for the non-basketball-expert owner, then, to feel he has a ready excuse to weigh-in on basketball decisions due to “conflict.”
The pattern is vivid now.
If he were authentic, NO direct basketball decision would ever come to his attention. NONE. He would give his GM a budget, ask the GM to keep him informed, and approach him only if the budget needed to be modified.
That area, and hiring/firing the GM, are the only areas where an owner’s decisions are legit.
I want to like Tony Ressler. I used to like Tony Ressler. But he’s only got himself to blame for how much license he’s given himself to be deceptive.
To like you, I have to trust you. I’m just one fan, but Ressler has given me too much reason to distrust him at this point.
I’m not a flippant, shallow, reactionary fan who hates on owners, by the way. In my own career, I’ve been a decision-maker, and vulnerable to potshots from people in the bleachers. So, I realize there could be an aspect to this where he doesn’t want to reveal to much out of respect to Travis and possibly others.
But he can be more transparent about himself. No one’s keeping him from that but Tony. And to the degree he resists transparency, he resists rebuilding trust.
Glad Tony sat down for the interview. But don’t really see he did anything in the words he chose but dig his hole deeper.
Yeah this interview didn’t help him. The whole “Do they still work here” shtick reeks of nepotism. It’s potentially grounds for a lawsuit.
Are there people who believe your son has to much influence?
Do they still work here?
It could be a tactic admission that you will fire anybody that believes that.
The Love experiment gets 10 games, then Martin is back in the starting group. Zeller will get waived, and Kevin Love will finish the season in a similar role he had with the Cavs. Then no Love in Miami next season
Heats rotation all year has been garbage, and it has been even worse since the signings. Also, as I said, Zellernonly makes sense in certain matchups, and they should have signed 1 of the many options at the 4 remaining, preferably someone that can help at smallball 5. That becomes even more obvious with Yurtseven now being back
Neither Love nor Caleb should start. I do think Herro is more doable as a starter b/c of Love, but again, I would start Duncan and Highsmith
Jimmy is right about team. They always need to work. To be successful. It’s like they overachieved when they went to Finals. And have been trying to find that formula ever since.
Knicks gm was a good game. Knicks got lucky. So I’m good ……
would rather not see Franz the rest of the year. dude is going to be a star for years. he consistently is a plus player in plus/minus even when the team loses big. in a season that has no chance of ending in a playoff berth, every effort needs to be made to increase the odds, however small, to possibly win the right to draft Wembenyama.